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Life as we know it is trending back towards normal, but the professional landscape is forever changed. Employers are allowing employees to permanently work from home, which will change their respective technology needs. Developing a suitable set of technology solutions—often called a “technology stack”—helps businesses streamline operations and empowers employees to work efficiently and effectively in multiple work environments. Below we outline common examples of various business processes and applications that can be integrated with your accounting products, to help you custom-build your own technology stack.

When a business reaches a certain number of eligible participants for their 401(k) Plan, federal law requires an independent audit of the Plan. While larger companies may be familiar with this process, many small business owners may find themselves in uncharted territory the first time their number of eligible participants increases above the threshold amount. In this second blog in our 3-part series, we’ll discuss what auditors review during a 401(k) Plan audit.

The Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) recently released a new lease accounting standard, which took effect for public firms on January 1, 2020, and will take effect for private firms on January 1, 2021.

The new lease accounting standard will require companies to record operating leases as both liabilities and assets on their balance sheets to give a more complete picture of a company’s financial obligations.

The subject of payroll has been top-of-mind for business owners this year. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered economic changes that caused considerable fluctuations in the size of many companies’ workforces. Employees have been laid off, furloughed and, in some cases, rehired. There has also been crisis relief for eligible businesses, including the Paycheck Protection Program and the payroll tax credit.

What gets measured, gets done. KPIs—or Key Performance Indicators—are an essential measurement tool used by successful businesses across all industries to track performance against benchmarks and achieve short- and long-term goals. For contractors, incorporating the right KPIs into your management toolkit can improve both your business and your bonding capacity.

The results are in, and regardless of which side you were rooting for, now is a good time to prepare for changes ahead in the new year. While President-elect Joe Biden has not yet provided concrete details on his plans to modify estate taxes, he has indicated that he supports raising estate taxes and changing the taxation of capital assets upon death.

Are your financial planner and CPA working together as a team on your behalf? For many people, this isn’t the case—but it should be. By incorporating tax planning into your investment strategy, you can make better informed decisions to maximize your dividends while maintaining tax efficiency.

Many employers have been forced to implement some form of workforce reduction in order to continue operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. While furloughs and layoffs have a significant and immediate impact on a company’s operations, plan sponsors also need to understand the longer-term effects that workforce reductions may have on participants’ benefits and retirement accounts.

In the first blog in our ‘Navigating the New Normal’ series, we will take a look at finances, and discuss some best practices for maintaining control in an uncertain economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life as we know it over the last several months, and businesses have been forced to adapt to the ‘new normal’, which in many cases, means having an entirely remote workforce for the first time ever.